Frank Pallone Jr. introduces amendment blocking President from  exercising Section 907 waiver authority

ArmInfo.  Congressional Armenian Caucus Co- Chair Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ) has introduced an amendment to H.R. 8800 - the National Defense Authorization Act for  FY27 - that would block the President from exercising Section 907  waiver authority until Azerbaijan takes demonstrable and verifiable  steps toward meeting concrete accountability conditions.  

Under Rep. Pallone's amendment, the Section 907 waiver - which has  long allowed U.S.  military assistance to flow to Baku despite  Azerbaijan's aggression against Armenians - cannot be exercised until  the President certifies to Congress that Azerbaijan has:

Released all remaining Armenian prisoners of war, civilian captives,  and former Artsakh officials held in its custody

Withdrawn Azerbaijani military forces from the internationally  recognized territory of the Republic of Armenia 

Guaranteed the protection and preservation of Armenian Christian  cultural heritage in Artsakh

Ceased the destruction of public and private property in formerly  Armenian-populated areas of Artsakh 

The Sec. 907 waiver has shielded Azerbaijan from accountability for  years - enabling U.S. military assistance to Baku even as it carried  out the genocidal ethnic cleansing of 120,000 Armenians from Artsakh.  Rep. Pallone's amendment ends that blank check.  

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to review this amendment in  the coming weeks. If ruled in order, the full House will have the  opportunity to vote - either separately or as part of an en bloc  package.  The ANCA thanks Rep. Pallone for his decades of principled  leadership and urges Members of Congress to cosponsor this critical  amendment to H.R. 8800. 

As a reminder, Section 907 was passed by Congress in 1992 and  prohibited the provision of government assistance to Baku by the US  administration in connection with the conflict between Azerbaijan and  Armenia. However, after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,  Congress passed the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, granting  the president the right to waive Section 907. The US needed this  waiver when it needed to supply American troops in Afghanistan. The  Bush and Obama administrations continued to refuse to implement this  ban. For many years, Azerbaijani diplomacy vainly sought its repeal,  but the situation changed in 2018, with the arrival of the Trump  administration, which suspended the amendment. This practice was  continued by President Joe Biden and now again by the Trump  administration.